Borg under pressure over animal transport

New health commissioner angers MEPs.

European Voice

12/12/12, 10:40 PM CET

Updated 4/13/14, 12:14 AM CET

In his first address to the full European Parliament, Tonio Borg, the new European commissioner for health and consumer policy, sought to reassure MEPs on Tuesday (11 December) that the Commission is taking the issue of animal transport seriously.

But Borg angered many MEPs when he said that there is no scientific justification for limiting all animal transport to eight hours, as called for by MEPs.

The Parliament was discussing a report approved by the agriculture committee in October that urged the Commission to reconsider its opposition to an eight-hour limit. The full Parliament endorsed the report yesterday (12 December).

There had been hope that the commissioner would have a different opinion, after what were seen as mixed messages on the issue from his predecessor, John Dalli.

Dan Jorgensen, a Danish centre-left MEP who is leading the ‘eight-hour’ campaign, which has collected one million signatures, criticised the commissioner’s comments. “What I heard you say was arrogant,” he said. “It is undemocratic to say to more than one million signatures that it is emotional, that it is unscientific.”

Julie Girling, a British Conservative MEP, said: “I understand of course that you have recently taken over but I can assure you that scientific work has been done”, referring specifically to the transportation of horses.